Mexican police get training from FBI, SAPD

By Ana Ley :
February 6, 2013
: Updated: February 6, 2013 10:02pm

Mexican law enforcement officials swarm a building during a simulation at the San Antonio Police Department’s training facility Wednesday morning during a Mexican American Liaison and Law Enforcement Training session coordinated by the FBI.

Photo By Helen L. Montoya / San Antonio Express-News

About 20 Mexican police officers were selected to participate in the Mexican American Liaison and Law Enforcement training.

Clad in face masks, half a dozen Mexican police officers swiftly swarmed into the dimly lit building with their handguns drawn.

“There's a hallway up ahead and a stairway over there,” one quietly told the others in Spanish before leading the crouching men inside. The sound of gunfire erupted moments later.

“They're like paint bullets,” FBI Special Agent Erik Vasys said, describing the pellets whizzing around the room. “They leave a mark. You know immediately if you've been hit, if you're exposed from your hiding position. It's really effective for training.”

“The training they give us is very important, because it's something else to help us do our jobs,” Francisco Javier Ortega, a federal police officer based in Victoria, said in Spanish.

Ortega was one of about 20 Mexican officials selected to participate in the session, which included training exercises in day-to-day police tactics like properly firing a weapon and apprehending a hostile subject. The training sessions have been held in Texas the past 18 years, Vasys said, and are part of an effort to help agencies coordinate efforts across the border and share new tactics.

Law enforcement tactics often are developed in the United States before they're shared with other countries, Vasys said.

“When it comes to law enforcement, tactics are almost like fashion, they start either in New York or L.A. and spread to the rest of the country and eventually the rest of the world,” Vasys said. “Law enforcement in the United States is seen as the best in day-to-day tactics.”